Some Schools Embrace Demands for Education Data

Image

Marisa Garza, 5, working on an assignment at Riverside Elementary School in Menomonee Falls, Wis. The board behind her encouraged the "plan-do-study-act" problem-solving cycle.CreditAndrew Nelles for The New York Times

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — In this small suburb outside Milwaukee, no one in the Menomonee Falls School District escapes the rigorous demands of data.

Custodians monitor dirt under bathroom sinks, while the high school cafeteria supervisor tracks parent and student surveys of lunchroom food preferences. Administrators record monthly tallies of student disciplinary actions, and teachers post scatter plot diagrams of quiz scores on classroom walls. Even kindergartners use brightly colored dots on charts to show how many letters or short words they can recognize.

Data has become a dirty word in some education circles, seen as a proxy for an obsessive focus on tracking standardized test scores. But some school districts, taking a cue from the business world, are fully embracing metrics, recording and analyzing every scrap of information related to school operations. Their goal is to help improve everything from school bus routes and classroom cleanliness to reading comprehension and knowledge of algebraic equations.

On a recent morning at Riverside Elementary School, Alyssa Walter, 7, opened her first-grade “data binder,” in which she recorded progress on reading and math tasks throughout the year. On one page, she showed a visitor six colored circles pasted into a drawing of a gumball machine, each dot representing her successful completion of a three-minute addition quiz.

“I like that it makes school more fun, and I like that you get to keep track of goals,” Alyssa said. Even though the quizzes sometimes make her nervous, looking over the collected charts and graphs “makes me feel proud of myself,” she said.

Anything that can be counted or measured will be.

In Jenks, Okla., for example, the school district tracks how often teachers use photocopiers. With a bump in use, curriculum supervisors may offer teachers help finding supplemental class materials or with planning lessons further in advance. After documenting a drop in the size of marching and concert bands, the Arlington Independent School District, near Dallas, suspended instrument rental fees. Band participation at the middle and high schools jumped.

Video

Alyssa Walter shows her first-grade “data binder” to a visitor.Published OnMay 11, 2015CreditImage by Andrew Nelles for The New York Times

Those who advocate more use of data in the classroom say it can give teachers concrete evidence of what instructional strategies work.

“We’ve been making most decisions up until now by anecdote or by hunch or who had the greatest sales pitch or what worked when I was in school,” said Aimee Rogstad Guidera, the president of the Data Quality Campaign, a nonprofit advocacy group. For many teachers, using data, she said, is “a cultural shift.”

But critics worry that an increasing focus on metrics could lead schools to play down intangible factors that enhance learning and inspire students. With many measurements based on some kind of test, some critics say the drive to collect more data could exacerbate the testing culture in schools or simply create more busywork.

Just as doctors need to observe more than blood pressure or cholesterol readings when treating patients, “the same is true in education,” said Pedro Noguera, a professor of education at New York University. “If you only look at the numbers, and you don’t probe and look at the learning environment, the culture of the school or the relationships between teachers and students, you’re going to miss out on a lot.”

Others worry that the relentless collection of data, along with the technology to handle the information ocean, could lead to privacy violations of students.

Parents say their children may sometimes feel as if they are being reduced to widgets.

Seeing scores posted in the classroom — albeit anonymously — sometimes frustrates her daughter, Ms. Mackay said. “She sees where her scores fall on all these charts compared to all these other kids, and then she feels like she is behind or ahead or right in the middle, so she feels like she’s just average rather than excellent at what she does,” she said.

Image

Charts from a science class at North Middle School in Menomonee Falls displaying student performance.CreditAndrew Nelles for The New York Times

Patricia Greco introduced the data-driven approach in the Menomonee Falls School District, with its 4,200 students, most from middle-income families, when she became superintendent in 2011.

For her doctoral dissertation, Dr. Greco read the theories of W.Edwards Deming, a statistician and engineer. Mr. Deming is credited with having helped Japanese manufacturers raise the quality of their products by using statistical analysis and soliciting regular feedback from workers and customers.

Under Dr. Greco’s leadership, departmental leaders attended classes at a local technical college, training alongside managers from manufacturing companies or hospitals. The business influence crops up in jargon, with teachers leading students in “plan-do-study-act” cycles, a popular problem-solving method, and in student binders full of charts and tables worthy of a boardroom presentation.

Every 45 days, teachers and administrators submit data-rich reports — filled with items like bar charts and quiz score records — to the school board. Once a week, teachers assemble after school to review data together.

Some parents like the approach because they feel it brings them more in tune with their children’s education. “I find it really helpful,” said Erica Schellhaas, whose daughter, Kylee, 5, is in preschool here at Ben Franklin Elementary School. “I know she’s learning and she’s on track.”

Dr. Greco has emphasized that teachers should not only look at numbers and scores, but also ask students for input into what kind of instruction works best for them. For some teachers, that has meant a change in thinking.

David Mahlum, who has taught chemistry at Menomonee Falls High School for two decades, said his initial thought was “I don’t think the students are going to tell me anything that I haven’t thought of or done before.”

Image

A first grader’s binder, to track her academic performance.CreditAndrew Nelles for The New York Times

Once he started looking at quiz and homework data to identify where students were struggling, he also asked them what kinds of lessons they preferred. He discovered that one group of students learned best with computer simulations while another liked word problems. When he tailored the class experiences, their performance improved.

With teachers posting charts of quiz scores on classroom walls, students can see how they compare with their peers. “Even though they don’t show our names, you get your test back and you can see how others did in your class,” said Amari Hackett, 16. “That kind of motivated me to do better.”

Amari said that after earning mostly C’s and D’s during the first semester in Mr. Mahlum’s classes, he was now earning solid C’s.

Beyond academics, school officials look at disciplinary data, zeroing in on problems before they get too big. This year, administrators at North Middle School noticed a striking uptick in the number of students being sent to the principal’s office for misbehavior.

“We said O.K., time out, we really need to put our finger on this because this should not be happening,” said Scott Marty, the associate principal at North Middle School.

After discussion, teachers and administrators realized that they had stopped offering incentives like movies or ice-skating or sledding trips for good behavior — a response, in part, to parent surveys that suggested such trips were taking away too much learning time.

The school decided to reinstate some trips. Students were also invited to suggest other rewards, like a costume day. Behavioral citations subsided.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Some Schools Embrace Demands for Education Data From Classroom to Lunchroom. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe